Hard Lessons
by corneroffandom
Summary: AU, after David's arrest and Greenlee confessing her love for him in front of Ryan.


Greenlee's sitting at home, rubbing her lower back as best she can, when she remembers the look on David's face when he saw Ryan before she confessed love for him. After everything David's given her and risked for her, all she can do is complain about her back and use him to hurt her ex further. She shakes her head, trying to get the look in his eyes out of her mind. "I'm so sorry," she whispers to the stale air of Wyndemere, as if the mansion's actually a part of David himself and can accept her apology and send it on to who truly deserves to hear it. She sighs and eases carefully onto the couch, drifting off despite her jumbled thoughts.

It feels like she's only slept for a couple hours when her phone rings, almost vibrating off of the table. As she grabs for it, her back throbs and she stiffens, the pain sending tears to her eyes. She waits for it to ease off but by the time it does, the phone's quieted, only making random chirps now and again to say she has a voicemail message. Once she can move without her back feeling like it could crack in two, she grabs her phone and listens to the voicemail.

"Oh my God," she whispers, almost dropping the device. "David!" She's out of the house within moments, her back all but forgotten.

She dashes into the hospital, her eyes shining with horrified tears. "Where's my husband?" she asks one of the nightshift nurses. "David Hayward!" She's pointed down one hallway and sprints down it, knowing immediately which room is his because Jesse Hubbard and Jake Martin are lurking around, watching her. "Don't even try to stop me," she warns them, eyes glinting dangerously. "I'm going to see my husband no matter what you say."

"Wouldn't think of it," Jesse tells her sarcastically, his gaze following her as she marches into David's room.

"You could've easily stopped her," Jake says in disapproval.

"I've fought with Greenlee enough," Jesse shrugs. "It's late, I should be at home with my wife, but no, I'm here instead."

Jake's lips purse as he thinks about Amanda and Trevor at home alone. "You have a point."

Greenlee slows down as she nears the curtain blocking the patient from view in case of potential nosy people looking for a scoop for some trash magazine or local newspaper that would disrupt the hospital. She can hear a slow beep...beep...beep among other noises that leave her feeling sick with dread. She knows these sounds, remembers them from her own stay in a clinic recently. "David?" she whispers, pulling the curtain away just enough for her to peek through. What she sees stops her in her tracks. "Oh God," she cries, hand pressing to her lips. "Oh no."

His skin is a sickly grey color, ventilator tube poking through his lips to help him breathe. An IV in both arms and other tubes disappear under the sheets. His heart sounds weak to her untrained ears and even she can tell his blood pressure is low. "What happened to you?" she breathes, hesitantly sitting down next to him. "How...? Who did this?" She hears high heels behind her and turns to find Angie watching with a pensive, albeit sympathetic look on her face. "Who did this?" she repeats.

Angie shakes her head, lips pursing. "No one did. It appears by test results that David's been in contact with highly lethal mold. He was found passed out in his jail cell an hour ago. They suspected he was trying to escape so he was taken to the infirmary and looked over- nothing seemed wrong with him, then his breathing became labored. By the time he was transported here, he had stopped breathing... so we had to intubate him."

Greenlee stops listening after hearing _highly lethal mold. _"Oh my God," she breathes, reaching out slowly and gripping David's hand. It's cold and feels so lifeless in her hold- fresh tears fill her eyes. _I'm going to kill Adam,_ she vows, running a finger gently across her husband's cheek. "Keep fighting, David. I am right here. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

She leans forward and gently kisses his cheek, breathing against his skin. "I shouldn't have insisted you stay there. I'm so sorry. When you wanted to run, I should've helped- should've put your wants ahead of my own... God, David," she whispers, well aware that Angie, Jake and Jesse are all watching from the doorway. _This isn't a show,_ she thinks angrily, her breath suddenly pouring out of her lungs as she feels like she's been punched. _This is what I did to David when I said I loved him in front of Ryan, he thought it was all an act... I'm so stupid..._ Her tears fall harder as she plays idly with his hair. _You do all you can to help me but all I ever think about is myself. Oh, David..._ She stays by his side, nose against his cheek, until her back aches and her head is swimming with self-recriminations.

"Greenlee," Angie says after a few moments, when she comes out to talk with Angie about David's condition, needing a moment to collect herself when she's not surrounded by proof of how sick her husband is. "Visiting hours are over."

"What? You think I'm leaving him like this?" Despite the tears in her dark eyes and obviously delicate way she's holding herself due to her back, there's still a lot of fight left in Greenlee Smythe-Hayward. "He needs me," she says softly, looking back towards the distressingly vulnerable looking man on the hospital bed.

"It's hospital rules," Angie says. "And he's a criminal. I can't bend the rules..."

Greenlee's lips twist in derisiveness as she stares at the chief of staff. "Oh please, you would if it was anyone _but_ David." Without waiting for an answer, she flounces back into her husband's room and strokes his hair back again. "They won't let me stay, David, but I promise... I'll just be down the hall in the waiting room. If you need me, I _will_ know it. You're not the only one with pull with the nurses," she whispers, kissing his cheek gently, as if afraid her mere touch will be enough to break him into pieces. "Keep fighting."

The waiting room she's sent to is lifeless. Bland. Lacking in color, style, substance, everything. She sits down with a heavy sigh, her back already disliking the chair she's settled against but she knows it's the least of what she deserves after what she's done to David. Not that she's the only one at fault- with all of his riches, Adam Chandler can't check his house for _mold?_ Seriously?- and she thinks viciously for a moment of letting the mold issue in the Chandler mansion go unmentioned but then she thinks about Emma living there unaware and closes her eyes. _Fine, dammit, I'll let them know... _This resolved in her mind, she twists her hands as she peers at the ring that David gave her upon their marriage. Her heart aches as she remembers the look in his eyes, so caring and gentle as he slipped the jewelry on her finger. _If you only knew, David,_ she thinks grimly. "But you still would've married me anyway, probably. That's just the kind of man you are."

She doesn't sleep the rest of the night, watching anxiously as nurse after nurse walks past her little area of the hospital, alternating between hoping for and dreading an update.

When she's finally allowed in to see him, he doesn't look any better. "Is he comatose?" she weakly asks a nurse who's checking his vitals.

"No," she says coldly, obviously aware of the Hayward tale of horror.

Stubbornly, Greenlee continues. "Then why isn't he waking up?"

"Perhaps it's psychological. Maybe the guilt became too much for him," she says almost snidely and Greenlee bristles.

"Get out of my husband's room. Get him a nurse who's not BIASED!" she yells after the aloof woman, wishing she could slam the door behind her. Despite the woman's attitude, her words cling to Greenlee and she returns quietly to David's side. "What if it is psychological?" she wonders out loud, gently running a hand through his soft, dark hair. "What if you're not waking up because of what I said?" Tears prick at her eyes and she leans against the bed, suddenly weak. "Oh God. This is all my fault."

The hours drag on, she stays by his side and strokes his cheek, whispers to him and ignores the different people who try to get her to leave. It's one of the longest days of her life but he's still fighting by evening so even though she's angry at having to leave again, she does so with little fuss, quickly kissing his forehead and cheek before pulling away. "I'll be back as soon as I can," she promises him. "Keep fighting." She's tempted but she doesn't want to hurt him further so she strokes his jaw as best she can around the ventilator, thinking desperately, _I love you._

Two more days pass and he slowly regains his strength, breathing on his own albeit with an oxygen tube. His heart rate is stronger as well, his blood pressure raising, but he's still unconscious. Angie becomes suspicious that it's all an act to stay out of the hospital but she does all kinds of awareness tests just for him to sleep on. "Ok, there's no one alive today that acts _that_ well," she comments after sticking him in the toe with a pin to no reaction.

Greenlee's at the end of her rope too, tired of Jackson and Jake and Amanda and this person and that person trying to get her to leave the hospital. She ends up sleeping in the on-call room, reluctantly thanking Jake for the privilege. Jack brings her food and Amanda brings her fresh clothes upon realizing that short of kidnapping, she just will not leave the building until David wakes up.

On the fifth day, she's just showered and changed into yet another fresh outfit when she joins David in his room. "David, if it's me," she says softly, tears welling in her eyes. "If I'm why you won't wake up... if my being here is hurting you... I'll leave and not look back. We'll annul the wedding and... I'll- I'll testify at your trial and you'll be free and can go anywhere you want, with anyone you want. Just please, wake up." Her throat closes as she talks and it's hard to choke out these words, but she struggles through it, clinging desperately to his hand. "Please, just don't... don't give up. Don't die," she sobs, feeling so tired despite just waking up a few hours earlier. _He looks _so _much like Leo in this moment,_ she realizes, her heart skipping a beat as she leans over to kiss him on the lips perhaps for the last time. Exhausted, she curls up next to him and eventually cries herself to sleep.

She's not sure what time it is when she slowly comes to but she's warmer and more at peace than she's been in almost a week. It's nearly torture to drag herself to consciousness but when she shifts and something moves in time with her, her eyes snap open. Her head is resting on David's chest and his heart is beating against her ear in time with the heart monitor nearby but something comforting and familiar is wrapped around her midsection, holding her close and her breath seizes in her throat as she slowly sits up. The arm wrapped around her doesn't fall to the bed though, shifting to grip her shoulder gently and she gasps, "David?"

He moves somewhat gingerly, his eyes fluttering open as if it's a struggle. She leans closer as he finally manages it and peeks at her with a small smile. "Greenlee." His voice sounds weak and almost painful but he's staring at her and talking and she feels like she could sob and laugh all at once.

"Oh my God," she gasps, cupping his face with both hands. "You're awake."

He nods, licking his lips and frowns at her. "How long have I been in here?" he wonders as she realizes what he needs, locating the water pitcher and pouring him a small amount.

As she helps him sip slowly, she weighs how much to tell him.

"Greenlee, just tell me," he urges as soon as she moves the glass away.

"Five days," she admits. "I guess there was some sort of toxic mold in the Chandler mansion. You were exposed to a lot of it, it effected your breathing... they had to put you on a ventilator."

He sighs, closing his eyes. "Go figure. No good deed goes unpunished." He smiles but she looks close to tears. "Greenlee? It was a joke-" he whispers, reaching up for her but she pulls away. He looks hurt before the old walls are put up to defend himself from her. "What's going on?"

"I think we should annul our marriage." If he looked hurt a second ago, it has nothing on the look in his eyes right now. "I- you were unresponsive for five days, David," she cries, her voice cracking. "It's my fault, if I hadn't made you feel like you were a mere tool for me to get back at Ryan by confessing my love for you in front of him, this never would've happened!"

He looks confused by this and tries to stop her ranting but she continues on and on until he sits up, his head immediately spinning by the change in position. "Gree-" he gasps, closing his eyes against the dizziness.

Her hands are gripping his shoulders immediately, easing him down onto the bed. "David! What are you trying to do?" she asks tearfully, reluctantly letting him go as soon as she's sure he's settled safely.

"Trying to get you to stop," he gasps. "My body needed time to heal, it had nothing to do with what you said or didn't say, Greenlee. I was on a ventilator, right? That's some heavy duty trauma, of course I was going to be out of it for awhile. It has nothing to do with what happened in jail, I promise you."

Her eyes are uncertain but hopeful. "Are you sure?"

He nods. "Completely. Please don't blame yourself for this, it's all Adam Chandler's fault for not maintaining his house better. I'm just glad Little A isn't living there right now. Now... will you drop this annulment talk? Please?"

As his hand reaches out for hers, she pauses and gazes deep into his sincere, loving eyes. _He's given up so much for me,_ she thinks sadly. _I hope this isn't a mistake._ She slowly eases her hand into his. "Ok, I'll drop it."

The smile on his tired face makes her smile as well.


End file.
